agencies
New Delhi, Dec 15: The Union cabinet Friday approved the draft law against instant triple talaq. The law makes instant triple talaq illegal and void and has provision to imprison husbands resorting to divorce by this means for jail terms of up to three years.
According to government sources, the draft Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill — prepared by an inter-ministerial group headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and his junior in the ministry P P Chaudhary as members — gives the victim the powers to seek custody of minor children as well as maintenance from her husband by approaching a magistrate after registering a complaint with the police. The proposed law also bans triple talaq in any form — spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS or WhatsApp. The Bill, which would be applicable only in the case of instant triple talaq or ‘talaq-e-biddat’, is to now be presented in the Winter Session of Parliament. The draft law was prepared following the August 22 verdict of the apex court that struck down the practice of ‘talaq-e-biddat’ as illegal.
